Ex-CEO of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Directorate for Building for the Far Eastern Federal District Andrey Poplavsky, accused of embezzlement and commercial bribery (Part 4 of Art.160 and Part 3 of Art. 204 of the Criminal Code), did not recognize his guilt at the trial.

Ex-CEO of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Directorate for Building for the Far Eastern Federal District Andrey Poplavsky, accused of embezzlement and commercial bribery (Part 4 of Art.160 and Part 3 of Art. 204 of the Criminal Code), did not recognize his guilt at the trial.

On June 14, Vladivoctok Frunzensky District Court began consideration of the criminal case on embezzlement of more than one billion rubles during construction of the oceanarium in the Primorye District. Main defendant of the case Poplavsky denies his guilt, arguing that there is no evidence that the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation has ever transferred any money to the Administration of the oceanarium for the construction. According to Poplavsky, the Federal State Unitary Enterprise does not even have bank account, where money could have been transferred.

Poplavsky has repeatedly pointed out that the Chamber of Control and Accounts and the Federal Service for Fiscal Monitoring have repeatedly checked the company’s Administration bank accounts and spending. During the inspection no violations were revealed. The former CEO claims that the funds allocated for construction were used directly for its intended purpose. According to Poplavsky, money, which the Administration employees and he used, belong to the Konstantinovsky International Charity Fund.

Photo: Oleg Shishov

According to the investigators, the former CEO embezzled more than 1 billion rubles allocated for the construction of the Primorsky oceanarium scientific and educational complex in Vladivostok. His accomplices were general director Oleg Shishov and Alexander Kosyachenko. Their companies, the LLC NPO Mostovik and the CJSC Kosandra, were general contractors of the construction.

Moreover, the investigators accuse Poplavskiy of being bribed by Kosyachenko and Shishov. According to the official version, Kosyachenko and Shishov paid Poplavsky more than 145 million rubles for accepting of contractors’ work on the construction of the Primorsky oceanarium.

The investigators report there is evidence confirming Poplavsky’s involvement in the crime: claims of Shishov and his subordinates’, who transferred money to the former CEO. All of them proved their words on confrontation.

On 21 of March, Oleg Shishov was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment and a fine of 300 thousand rubles for aiding embezzlement by the Vladivostok Frunzensky District Court. In addition, he was accused of fraud during construction of the Omsk ring road, as well as tax evasion and non-payment of salaries to employees of the company. The criminal case against Kosyachenko was dismissed due to non-rehabilitating grounds in connection with death of the accused.

Poplavsky’s trial was scheduled on 27 of May, but the hearing had to be postponed due to state of health of the accused: the ambulance was called for him.

According to the project, opening of the oceanarium supposed to become a global scale event. Area of the building is over 30 thousand sq. meters. 15-18 thousand species and 500-600 living organisms living in seas and oceans around the world were planned to be placed there. The opening was scheduled on 2012, by the beginning of the APEC-2012 summit, but the object was not delivered in time. Date of putting it into service has been postponed several times.